Todd Haselton | The VergeThe Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts.2026-02-21T16:58:11+00:00https://www.theverge.com/authors/todd-haselton-2-2/rsshttps://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/verge-rss-large_80b47e.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1Todd Haselton<![CDATA[The Pixel 10A is a little too much like last year’s phone]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=8804002026-02-21T11:58:11-05:002026-02-18T10:00:00-05:00
Google’s midrange Pixels have been our top pick for budget Android phones for a while. They offer good cameras and most of what you need at a budget-friendly price. But this year’s upgrade feels so minimal, I’d liken it more to a Pixel 9A+. Or a Pixel 9B.
The $499 Pixel 10A is supposed to be a slightly worse Pixel 10. But it’s more like a slightly better Pixel 9A. And that’s a bit of a bummer. Very few of the features that make the Pixel 10 series compelling trickled down to the 10A this year.
You don’t get all the good stuff that makes the Pixel 10 series more compelling. There’s still last year’s Tensor G4 chip and 8GB of RAM, which isn’t enough to power the more advanced AI features Google launched on Pixel 10, like Magic Cue or Pixel Screenshots, the latter of which debuted on the Pixel 9. Do you care? Maybe not! I like Magic Cue, though. And my guess is that skyrocketing RAM prices play a role here. It could explain the lack of additional AI features, but I can’t blame RAM prices for what otherwise feels like a more “meh” update.
So what do you get from the Pixel 10? You also get the 10’s SOS satellite communications, in case you get lost out in the woods, and a bear is chasing you, and you need to point your phone at the sky and tell someone that a bear is chasing you and that you need help.
The Pixel 10A also borrows a couple of new AI tricks, like Auto Best Take (not just Best Take), which automatically selects the best picture from a bunch, like the one where everyone in a group shot is facing the camera. This worked well during a quick test at Google’s office. Similarly, it offers Google’s Camera Coach, which walks you through some ideas on how to take the best picture of a subject. I tested this with a fake orchid, and the suggestions on how to frame it were almost certainly better than anything I’d have thought of because I am not a great photographer and usually just pull out my phone for a quick picture of my kids doing something silly.
You’d be hard-pressed to spot the design differences, so I’ll lay them out for you. Google says it’s its most durable Pixel A-series phone yet. The display is stronger thanks to a new Gorilla Glass 7i covering and gets a bit brighter (11 percent to 3,000 nits) at its peak, like when you’re trying to see the screen in the sun. It has the same IP68 waterproofing.
Google Pixel 10A
Google’s new Pixel 10A introduces faster wired charging, Satellite SOS, and new AI tools like Camera Coach and Auto Best Take. Otherwise, it’s basically the Pixel 9A, with the same Tensor G4 chip and a dual-camera system. Read our hands-on impressions.
The bezel around the screen is slightly narrower (10 percent narrower, to be exact). The cameras are all the same as last year, but the 13-megapixel and 48-megapixel sensors on the back now lie fully flushwith the frame instead of sticking just a hair above it. Even the colors look similar to last year, but the berry color is the best: You won’t find that shockingly bright color on any other phone, and it’s the one you should buy. Other colors include lavender, fog (gray), and obsidian (black). Google’s also launching fog and berry Pixel Buds 2A, so you can match.
The Pixel 10A also doesn’t have Pixelsnap, Google’s version of MagSafe that lets you use any magnetic snap-on charger or accessory. That’s a bummer, I love that, and I think it should be here. Still, you get a wee bit faster wired and wireless charging. Wired charging jumped from 27-watts to 30-watts, and wireless charges at 10-watts instead of 7.5-watts.
Preorders for the 10A begin today, and it hits shelves on March 5. It will be available with 128GB or 256GB of storage. A lot of people buy Pixel A-series phones for the pure Android experience and frequent updates. I don’t think they really care about having every last AI or hardware feature Google makes. But it just doesn’t feel like Google brought enough of the Pixel 10 to the Pixel 10A this year. That’s why it’s more like a 9A 2.0.
Correction, February 18th, 2026: An earlier version of this story misstated the Pixel 10A’s release date. It is March 5, not March 4.
Photography by Owen Grove / The Verge
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Todd Haselton<![CDATA[Ninja’s versatile Creami ice cream maker hits an all-time low for Black Friday]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=8328702025-11-28T20:45:51-05:002025-11-28T21:00:00-05:00
Ice cream in December? Oh hell yeah. Ninja’s Creami Scoop & Swirl ice cream maker is 20 percent off for Black Friday, dropping it to a new all-time low of $279.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and SharkNinja’s online storefront. It can make hard and soft serve ice cream, and, as my colleague Jen Tuohy found this summer, you can make some pretty fun recipes with it.
Ninja Creami Scoop & Swirl
Ninja’s clever 2-in-1 machine can spin up soft serve and traditional hard scoops in a few easy steps, not to mention creamy milkshakes, gelato, and frozen yogurt.
The Ninja Creami makes ice cream on one side, which you then dispense as soft-serve on the other. Just a heads-up: it takes about 24 hours to freeze the ice cream. But you can also turn store-bought ice cream into soft serve “in seconds,” according to our reviewer. Tuohy also found online communities with fun recipes, so she tried a few other things.
In her words, “I’ve also enjoyed creating unusual frozen delights in the Ninja. Inspired by a very active Reddit forum, we tried frozen tomato soup (really yummy), fresh watermelon mixed with condensed milk (ah-ma-zing), and my son’s morning protein smoothies in frozen form — the perfect way to prep him for a day of lifeguarding at the local pool.“
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Todd Haselton<![CDATA[The Oura Ring 4 is still at its lowest price ever for Black Friday]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=8323032025-11-28T13:22:35-05:002025-11-28T13:22:35-05:00
The newest Oura Ring 4 is still available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Oura for $249 — its lowest price to date — for Black Friday, which is about $100 off the standard retail price. Or you can save up to $150 if you’re going for the gold or rose gold models, since those are down from $500 to $350. That’s if you fancy.
The Oura Ring 4 is best known for its advanced sleep tracking, and I’ve found it pretty useful even though I don’t really like spending $5.99 a month to get the most out of the subscription. That subscription gives you more detailed sleep tracking, 24/7 heart rate data, temperature monitoring, SpO2 sensing, and more. It’s all the stuff you’d want monitored in case something gets out of whack. The latest Oura 4 model improves tracking of oxygen levels, your heart rate, and activities.
Don’t sleep on the deal. Ha ha. See what I did there? Sleeping gadget. Anyway, where was I?
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Todd Haselton<![CDATA[Hallmark’s Mario and Toad Christmas ornaments are less than $10 for Black Friday]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=8322392025-11-28T13:17:14-05:002025-11-28T13:17:14-05:00
My tree is usually full of old ornaments passed down through my family, but they kind of look like they’re made of lead. Maybe yours are also lead! Perhaps we should replace the lead with Nintendo ornaments.
You should have your tree pretty much covered. If not, pair these with the rest of our ornament guide. Replace the lead.
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Todd Haselton<![CDATA[The best Black Friday deals on Apple AirPods — up to 47 percent off]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=8319082025-11-28T10:18:00-05:002025-11-28T10:18:00-05:00
AirPods Pro 3
It’s the most wonderful time of the year to buy AirPods. They’re heavily discounted for Black Friday from places like Amazon and Walmart, starting at just $69 for the most basic (but still great) AirPods 4. And, better yet, you can even get a $30 off deal on Apple’s newest model, the AirPods Pro 3. I’m also including wired EarPods because… people like wires again. And they’re on sale.
Here are the deals you should check out.
AirPods 4
Apple’s AirPods 4 are the latest update to the company’s base-model wireless earbuds. The hard, plastic buds feature improved audio over the third-gen model, along with deep iOS integration and spatial audio with head tracking. Read our review.
The third-gen AirPods Pro add a new built-in heart rate sensor and live translation feature. They also improve upon their predecessor with enhanced noise cancellation, improved sound quality, and a fifth swappable ear tip.
The latest noise-canceling AirPods offer the perfect blend of audio quality, comfort, and battery life, making them the right choice for iPhone users. They have better mics than previous models, allowing for clearer audio when calling home or creating voice notes.
The revised AirPods Max are much like the original model from 2020, but now with new color options and a USB-C port instead of Lightning. Read our original review.
The second-gen AirPods Pro improve upon Apple’s original pair with much better noise cancellation, sound quality, and onboard volume controls. The latest refresh also ships with a USB-C charging case, as opposed to Lightning. Read our review.
Bluetooth earbuds are all the rage, but you’d be surprised how often a wired pair comes in handy. Apple’s EarPods have a surprisingly good microphone, never need to be charged, and should work with all your USB-C devices. An inline controller on the earbuds’ cable lets you change your volume and pause or skip tracks.
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Todd Haselton<![CDATA[The best thing I bought this year: a portable jumper box]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=8233792025-11-20T20:03:16-05:002025-11-20T09:30:00-05:00
Having a jumper battery handy for emergencies can prevent a lot of problems for you and your family. | Image: Noco
Hey! We’re kicking off an end-of-the-year series where we’re highlighting some of the best gadgets that Verge staff purchased this year, just in case you need some gift ideas. And it starts with my pick: a battery pack and portable jumper box for your car called the $100 Noco Boost GB40. Sounds boring, right? Hear me out.
The gist is this: It’s a small battery pack with jumper cables, which means you can use its power to jump-start your car instead of having to connect a jumper cable from another car’s battery to yours, then start the other car, wait for a few minutes, and hope your car starts.
I’d heard about gadgets like the Noco Boost GB40 for years, and I’ve seen my share of them on gift guides, but I’d never purchased one. Then the battery in one of our cars died while my in-laws had my kids at the playground. I was out of town, and AAA said it wouldn’t come to jump it unless I was with the car. Bad.
Long story short: the kids and in-laws got home through a mix of Uber and another car, and I planned to jump the dead battery with my other car the next morning. I explained the situation to a friend, and he asked why I didn’t have “one of those battery jump-starter thingies.” He sent me a link to the Noco Boost GB40, and I ordered it for delivery first thing the next morning.
It’s supereasy to use and, thankfully, comes with a partial charge. My wife and I drove another car over to the playground, I attached the Noco Boost GB40’s red clamp to the positive terminal on the dead battery and the black cable to the negative terminal, and waited about a minute. Voilà! The car started right up. I drove it to a mechanic, dropped it off, and had a new battery a few hours later.
Since that car has a new battery, I now keep the Noco Boost in a different vehicle in case that battery ever dies. The device has a flashlight, too, in case you ever need to jump a car at night, and it can charge a phone over USB-C. I didn’t test that, so I’m not sure how fast it charges a phone — but it should work if I’m in a bind.
Anyway, it’s a nice safety gift for loved ones this Christmas. This will be the most boring gift under the tree, and I don’t think anyone will be excited by it, but it’ll be a favorite as soon as they need it.
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Todd Haselton<![CDATA[Apple’s Vision Pro with M5 is better than the first, but still awfully lonely]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=8079632025-10-28T11:06:23-04:002025-10-29T08:00:00-04:00
The new Vision Pro with M5 offers some improvements over the original.
Apple’s Vision Pro remains the best VR headset by a mile, and there are many moments when it feels magical to use. I love staring at 3D photos, watching movies on huge screens, and working across a bunch of floating windows. But I noticed something weird after I wrote my first review in 2024: I took the headset off, put it back in its box, and didn’t put it back on again.
The new M5 model remains a very good headset, now slightly faster and more comfortable than its predecessor. But I’ve still found it hard to return to instead of just watching a movie on my iPhone or TV, or working right from my Mac. It requires putting something on my head, over my eyes, and creating an environment that I haven’t gotten used to yet.
That’s the struggle Apple and other companies will face trying to sell these: using it feels a little isolating — like I’m removing myself from the real world. It’s a neat device, but I can live without it.
Apple Vision Pro (M5)
Apple’s 2025 Vision Pro headset.
Score: 6
Pros
Cons
It feels better balanced on your head
Watching movies, working, and viewing immersive photos is fun
Perhaps the single most noticeable upgrade to the Vision Pro this year is the addition of the new Dual Knit Band. The new strap, which also works with the original, is a big deal. It adds a band across the top of your head and embeds weights into the strap behind it. This helps to balance the headset so it doesn’t feel as front-heavy, a complaint many had with the first version and its single-band strap. The whole setup is a hair heavier, but the better balance on my head is easily worth the tradeoff. The strap can be tightened in two places — on the top of your head and on the back — using a single knob on the righthand side. Twist to tighten one strap, and then pull out that knob and twist to tighten the other. It’s a clever design.
As for the actual hardware, not much has changed: it’s the Vision Pro with an M5 processor inside. What does that mean in practice? Turns out the M5 enables some quality-of-life upgrades. Apple now allows the micro-OLED displays inside to refresh even faster, at 120hz compared to the max of 100hz in the first edition. I don’t remember feeling like the screens in the M2 version were blurry when I scrolled through websites or photos or moved my head quickly across a Mac display in the headset, but this should make that experience even smoother if it bothered you.
Battery life is a hair better thanks to the M5, too. I streamed three episodes of Severance in a row before I hit a 10 percent warning, right in the range of Apple’s promise of three hours of video playback. That drops to two-and-a-half hours of “regular use,” which means just browsing the web, playing around in apps, and checking out some movies.
Widgets are new since I last used the Vision Pro in 2024, though not limited to the M5, and I like that I can pin them to specific spots around my house and leave them there. So, I have a couple of photos and a playlist sort of “hanging” on the wall in my living room, and they’re always there when I put the headset back on.
Looking at photos remains one of my favorite uses for the Vision Pro. The M5 uses artificial intelligence to turn regular photos into immersive pictures in just a few seconds — a bit faster than the M2, I’m told (I don’t have the original anymore to compare). These immersive photos and videos, which you can also record with the headset or a modern iPhone, feel close to being back in the moment, bringing people and scenes to life in 3D with a sort of colorful blur around them. Right now, it’s as close as I can get to loved ones who’ve since died. And I love seeing my daughter’s baby toes from a year ago in 3D.
There are lots of these “you have to see it to believe it” moments. It’s wild watching Apple’s immersive videos of animals in the wild or helicopters soaring over mountain tops. I’m bummed the library is still small and the videos are all relatively short. Apple continues to add more clips and “shows” that are sort of mini-documentaries, demonstrating how the headset can make you feel transported to another world. But I’d love a larger library of longer feature-length films. Most of what’s there feels a bit like demo content, generally lasting anywhere from a few minutes to 30 minutes. It’s relaxing to sit inside a huge movie theater and watch these on a massive display that looks crisp and real with high-quality spatial audio pumping into my ears. It’s just a bit sad there’s nobody to share it with (unless you’re a household with enough dough for several of these!)
The new chip also renders 10 percent more viewable pixels. This doesn’t mean there are more pixels on the displays — those are the same — it’s that the chip can show more of them to your eyes at once. This is part of the foveated rendering used by headsets like the Vision Pro. The pixels that your eyes are focused on are sharp, while the system seamlessly reduces the quality in your periphery. Text on sites and in apps is sharper as a result, but it wasn’t such a dramatic change that I could pick it out.
Personas — the 3D versions of people that launched on the first version — look much more detailed and lifelike than ever. That makes the solitary feeling a bit better! But the only people I could chat with were Apple employees in a briefing. My friends don’t own Vision Pros. And they probably won’t until they cost a lot less.
Then there’s the big promise of the Vision Pro: that this is a new, serious, and productive way of working for professionals. You really can get work done using it. Most of the apps I needed were available in the App Store or worked fine enough in the browser. I was able to see all of my open apps very clearly, edit the text of reviews in Google Docs, Slack with colleagues, and more. And I did it for several hours without eye strain. To the extent that Apple wanted to build a computer for your face, it’s done that.
But I also don’t really like using it for long periods. It starts to feel a little claustrophobic having something so significant on my face after a few hours. I also just prefer to be able to do regular human motions, like rub my nose bridge when I’m frustrated, cover my eyes and ruffle my hair when I make a mistake, or pace around the room without something on my head.
I much prefer sitting here on my couch with my dog snuggled next to me, typing this review and seeing the real world without a headset on my face. The Vision Pro passthrough may be clear enough for many things — and slightly sharper thanks to M5 — but I will always lift it to speak with someone face-to-face, answer the phone, pet my dog, or walk around. To do anything, really.
The new Vision Pro is fun and sometimes magical, just like the first one was. But as Nilay Patel and I said in our first reviews back then, it’s lonely in there. I want to share the experience and feel less like I’m in another world and more like I’m in this one.
Apple needs to give me a reason to keep coming back. Maybe the company’s push into live sports is one way to help with that. It’ll offer NBA games in 2026 that will make you feel like you’re sitting courtside. But Apple needs a much smaller and lighter product if it truly wants to remove the friction between “I’ll watch this movie in the Vision Pro” and “I’ll just use my Mac.” Hopefully I’ll look less dumb in it, too.
Photos by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
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Todd Haselton<![CDATA[Hands-on with Amazon’s new Kindle Scribes, including one with a color screen]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=7879842025-09-30T16:35:42-04:002025-09-30T11:12:33-04:00
Color comes to the big Kindles.
Amazon announced three new Kindle Scribes this morning with a much nicer design. There’s even one with a color screen. I had a chance to check them out ahead of Amazon’s press event, and I have some thoughts.
This marks the third generation of the company’s larger 11-inch e-readers aimed at professionals, students, and people who just want… a big screen for magazines, books, or to jot notes on. The addition of a color display is one highlight, but these Scribes are also super light (14.1oz) and thin. At 5.4mm, they’re thinner than the iPhone Air and come with new AI features that will help users quickly summarize notes. I dig the new look with the thinner bezels. No more beefy side-chin.
The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, which starts at $629.99 and is set to launch later this year, appears to be the one to get. I know it’s expensive considering it’s not a tablet. But that’s Amazon’s point: it’s not a tablet, so you can’t get distracted by things like email, Slack, games, or whatever naughty things you do on your iPad. That won’t appeal to everyone, but it appeals to me and is one reason I’ve liked these in the past. Also, it has two weeks of battery life and lets you draw or write in a bunch of colors (or highlight in five colors), and syncs with Microsoft OneDrive (and soon, Google Drive).
I know some folks have questioned the appeal of color e-readers, since books are typically black and white, and color is only useful for highlighting or viewing book covers. But it works really well on a larger screen where folks are more likely to view work documents like PDFs, textbooks, and magazines. It made me wish yet again that Amazon hadn’t killed off its newspaper subscriptions, because I’d love to read those on this.
In addition to the Colorsoft, there’s also an entry-level model that starts at $429.99 and launches early next year, as well as a mid-tier model with a frontlit display, which starts at $499.99 and will also launch later this year. All three models have a whole new user interface that I dig, too. There’s this small area at the top where you can launch into Quick Notes, kind of like if you had a never-ending Post-it note.
I also had a demonstration of a new AI search feature. It provides summaries of your documents and seems to work pretty fast. You need a Wi-Fi connection, though, since it’s not powered on-device and also searches for documents in the cloud. I’m excited to see if it works well to find and summarize the seemingly infinite number of work documents I have stored in Google Drive.
There’s a new pen that comes bundled with the Kindles. It’s a bit larger and more round, easier to hold, and has stronger magnets so you can stick it to the side of the Scribe without worrying about it knocking off too easily. My quick test writing with the pen felt more fluid, at least compared to the first-generation Kindle Scribe I purchased when it came out. Amazon said that it added textured glass so the screen doesn’t feel slippery when you’re writing. I didn’t notice this during my brief hands-on, so I’m curious to see how it feels once we have a review unit.
The new front lighting looked balanced, although I haven’t really had any complaints with the lights on my first-gen model. I’m not sure I’d buy the model without a front light. But you do you.
Photography: Todd Haselton | The Verge
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Todd HaseltonJennifer Pattison Tuohy<![CDATA[Amazon event live blog: we’re here for new Echos, Kindles, and more]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=7866852025-09-30T09:49:32-04:002025-09-30T09:30:00-04:00
We’re at Amazon’s fall 2025 hardware event in New York City, where the company is set to announce a bunch of new gadgets ahead of the holidays. Amazon’s teaser image for today suggested new Kindles, Echos, and maybe a TV. Whatever it is, it’s been a long time coming: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy promised “beautiful” new hardware back in February, which is when the key software they’ll be running — Alexa Plus — made its debut.
Whether Amazon can make Alexa Plus useful is the real question beneath all of today’s announcements. The AI-powered assistant is off to a promising start, but on current devices, it can be sluggish when responding and still misunderstand your intent. New hardware can help with some of that, but it can only go so far when it comes to LLMs.
Things kick off at 10AM ET / 7AM PT. There’s no video feed for this one — we’re just going to go hard in the paint right here from the audience for you.
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Todd HaseltonAllison Johnson<![CDATA[Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro is a bold redesign but a basic upgrade]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=7792652025-09-23T10:31:38-04:002025-09-17T08:00:00-04:00
Apple’s new iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone 17 Pro.
It’s a tricky year to review the iPhone Pro. It’s long been the go-to choice for anyone who wants an iPhone with the nicest screen, longest battery, and great cameras. But the display is no longer unique to the Pro, cameras have largely gotten “good enough” on most phones, and Apple has a new model, the Air, which might be even more compelling.
This is the first time the iPhone Pro feels like it’s truly targeted at creators — people who need the longest battery life and the best cameras to record video and photos. I’m not a creator, but I’ve always bought the Pro Max for its bigger, higher-refresh-rate screen as much as for its beefy battery. But now I don’t have to for the former, and neither do you, because, also for the first time, the regular iPhone 17 has the same bright, smooth, always-on screen as the Pro (and Air). And it starts at $799, compared to the $1,099 starting price of the iPhone 17 Pro and $1,199 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
The iPhone 17 is the new iPhone for most people, and the iPhone Air is the most exciting new iPhone, at least given its totally new ultra-thin design. So the iPhone 17 Pro is for people who really want more camera options, even longer battery life, slightly faster charging, and… orange.
iPhone 17 Pro
The iPhone 17 Pro features a 6.3-inch OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and it’s powered by an A19 Pro chip. It features a 48MP triple camera system, plus a new “plateau” bar on the back, which Apple says creates additional space for internal components, including a larger battery.
The larger iPhone 17 Pro Max sports a 6.9-inch OLED screen and the best battery life ever in an iPhone. It has most of the same features as the smaller iPhone 17 Pro, though, but offers storage up to 2TB — a first in the iPhone line.
I like the new look of the iPhone 17 Pro. It has rounded edges again, which we haven’t seen since the iPhone 11 Pro. I prefer them to the sharp sides on the other models. And I dig the contrast between the lighter orange of the ceramic-and-glass square panel and the darker orange of the aluminum body. The color difference is also a bit of a guide. It screams “This is where the accessories go,” as if to tell the user, “Plop the MagSafe charger here.” Or “Stick the magnetic wallet on me.” (The wallet covers the rectangle perfectly on the iPhone 17 Pro.) The orange is bold, arguably more so than any other color Apple has launched on a Pro phone. I love it, but there are navy or white versions for folks who don’t. (Perhaps coincidentally, navy blue and orange are the colors of Auburn University, where Apple CEO Tim Cook went for undergrad.)
The camera bar (or “plateau,” as Apple calls it) replaces the small camera island on the earlier Pro models. It houses the three 48-megapixel cameras: main, wide-angle, and telephoto, the last of which is an upgrade from the 12-megapixel sensor in last year’s phones. The cameras sit above Apple’s new “Ceramic Shield” back, which is more resistant to cracks if you drop the phone. The front glass is also more scratch-resistant.
Quick anecdote: The iPhone 17 Pro Max fell out of my pocket and face down onto a rocky trail during a camping trip with my son and was fine. My 16 Pro Max probably would have been, too. And not to belabor the orange, but it was easy to spot on the ground. During a hike, I couldn’t see a big difference in the new max peak brightness compared to my iPhone 16 Pro Max. No huge surprise there; we’re quickly approaching the darker days of autumn, and that high brightness is reserved for the brightest of days. Regardless, most phone screens look OK in direct sunlight now, unless the brightness is being throttled from overheating while you’re on the beach.
I don’t like that the Pro Max is slightly heavier, at 8.2 ounces, right between the 8-ounce titanium iPhone 16 Pro Max and the 8.4-ounce steel iPhone 14 Pro Max. After touting titanium’s strength for two years, Apple switched to an aluminum body for the Pro, paired with the new vapor chamber, to help keep it cooler during processor-intensive tasks, like rendering videos or gaming.
That seems to have paid off. The phone was warm when I loaded up Destiny: Rising and when I played about 45 minutes of War Thunder, but didn’t feel sizzly right over the processor, an area that can get uncomfortably hot on my iPhone 16 Pro Max when I’m playing games or running any form of local AI.
Speaking of power-intensive tasks, let’s talk about the battery. Apple hollowed out a block of aluminum to fit the biggest battery possible inside the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max — promising up to 39 hours of battery life on the larger model versus 33 for the iPhone 16 Pro Max while watching video. Video playback time is a bizarre battery stat for a phone, but it’s one Apple sticks to.
On my first full day with the 17 Pro Max, the phone went a full day of regular use, not video playback, from 7:23AM to midnight, and still had 16 percent battery left. That was a light day of use, with only five hours and 15 minutes of screen-on time, though it may have still been syncing all of my saved data to the review unit.
Battery life improved by the second full day. I took it off the charger at 7:32AM and hit 50 percent battery at 8:43PM, with five hours and 11 minutes of screen-on time. I’d mainly used it for my regular stuff: Slack, text messages, Safari, browsing Amazon, taking photos, and chatting with friends. I usually charge my iPhone 16 Pro Max around 8PM, but I still had half a battery left on the 17 Pro Max. It seems like a significant improvement so far. Your mileage is going to vary depending on what you do, and it’s too early to render an overall verdict.
The Pro Max has the biggest battery you’re going to get from any iPhone this year. There are also some upgrades to help it charge faster. The Pro models, like the regular, support 40-watt wired charging, which juices the battery to 50 percent in 20 minutes. And MagSafe charging is slightly faster, too. If you have a 30-watt charger, the Pro 17, like the regular iPhone 17, can juice with MagSafe up to 50 percent in 30 minutes versus 35 minutes on last year’s phone (the Air can do the same with a 20-watt charger, but has a smaller battery).
Plenty of cameras
The cameras are the reason many people buy Apple’s iPhone Pros. They’re the phones that offer telephoto lenses, have better image stabilization, record sharper video, and include ProRes support. This year, Apple added several additional “Pro” features, like Genlock support, which lets videographers sync up timecodes across multiple cameras, and support for ProRes RAW recording — though you’ll need an external drive for that one.
Pro stuff aside, Center Stage is the best new camera feature, and it’s available on all iPhone 17 models. You’ve probably heard of it. On Macs and iPads, it allows the camera to follow your head — or your whole body — as you talk to someone on a video call. That’s on the iPhone now in the 18-megapixel selfie camera, where it goes one step further, thanks to a new square sensor. Center Stage can automatically detect if there are more people inside a frame and expand to a landscape photo to fit everyone in (you can also switch to landscape mode manually). That means you don’t have to juggle your phone and try to turn it sideways for a landscape photo; you can just hold it in portrait mode. It’s awesome, it works well, and it’s a unique solution to a problem I’d never really thought about.
The front-facing cameras on all iPhone 17 models allow you to capture from the front and back cameras at the same time while recording, which is neat if you want to record a video of yourself showing somebody where you are, or how to do something, though it’s not a feature I see myself using.
Now to the main cameras. All three rear sensors are now 48 megapixels, including the telephoto. Apple has said this is like having eight different lenses. My colleague Antonio already took issue with the phrasing. On a purely surface level, though, I dig the options, and it’s one reason why I’d maybe choose this over the iPhone Air or iPhone 17, which don’t give you as many choices. The ultrawide, 1x, and 4x let you shoot in full 48-megapixel resolution with RAW or HEIC, while the others capture 12-megapixel pictures. Antonio did a better breakdown of how this works, but it’s a mixture of marketing, cropping, and computational photography.
The telephoto camera got a resolution bump, but it also downshifted from a 5x zoom on the 16 Pro models to 4x, making it a 100mm-equivalent lens, compared to roughly 120mm on the previous models. The 5x lens often felt slightly too long for head-and-shoulders portraits; 100mm feels just right. And with the higher-resolution sensor, there’s now a 2x crop zoom mode available to the telephoto lens for an 8x zoom (200mm equivalent). That’s just long enough to ensure that your photo of Alcatraz taken from the Marina Green in San Francisco doesn’t look like an unrecognizable speck, and the quality is more than enough for a social media post.
The shift to 48 megapixels also improves digital zoom quality; you can even get slightly more detailed 5x digital zoom photos from the 17 Pro compared to the optical 5x on the 16 Pro, since more pixels will generally do that if all else is equal. Altogether a smart update for this year’s telephoto.
That 2x crop zoom on the main camera remains a reliable option for environmental portraits and just a little extra reach when you need it. This year, Apple updated some of its processing on the 2x mode to bring out better detail in things like fabric; it’s subtle, but you can see the difference in a couple of side-by-side shots viewed at 100 percent. It’s not a big thing, but 2x images are just a little cleaner — kind of a nice bonus feature.
The 2x crop zoom on the iPhone 17 Pro (right) is just a little more detailed than on the 16 Pro (left). You can see the difference in the texture of the microfiber cloth, particularly in the shadows.
Siri needs to catch up
There’s one thing I still can’t really get off my mind, though, and that’s just how far behind Apple is in generative AI. Not long ago, when I talked to people about gadgets or tech, everyone wanted to know what was new with Apple. Now, everyone just wants to talk about AI and how I’m using it or how it’s going to replace or not replace jobs. And it’s being baked into every other piece of hardware on the market from every other big player, like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon.
While Apple has launched some of the Apple Intelligence features it announced last year, we still don’t have a fully upgraded Siri that you can talk to like Google Gemini. And, sure, you can load the Gemini or ChatGPT apps, or make Siri pull from ChatGPT on the iPhone, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I recently bought a Pixel 10 Pro — it’s an excellent phone — and I love the way it integrates AI at a system level. Google’s Magic Cue, which runs on-device, can scan your inbox and calendar and prompt you to insert important dates and places right into your text messages when it sees you talking about a specific topic. Pixel Screenshots, which launched last year, can remind you of music or books you’ve saved when you open Spotify. And Gemini, which you can pull up by voice or by holding the power button, is just infinitely smarter and more useful than Siri.
I don’t think people are buying phones for these features yet, but the industry is moving awfully fast, and millions of people are using AI every day. It should be a highlight feature on the iPhone, front and center, but it is relegated to the background for things like translation and photos, and in other places where Google also uses it. It just feels like a giant void.
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max offer a lot of compelling features. Despite a redesign that might otherwise suggest a considerable upgrade, most of the changes are modest. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are the best iPhones if you’re after the longest battery life, best cameras, and the most power from Apple’s 2025 lineup. They’re also the top options if you want orange. However, most people should consider the more affordable iPhone 17. It features the same screen and will do everything most people need. Or, check out the Air if, like me, you’re just curious what it’s like to use a very thin iPhone. Worst-case scenario: return it and get the Pro. In orange.
Agree to continue: Apple iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air
Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.
To use any of the iPhone 17 (and iPhone Air) models, you have to agree to:
The iOS terms and conditions, which you can have sent to you by email
Apple’s warranty agreement, which you can have sent to you by email
These agreements are nonnegotiable, and you can’t use the phone at all if you don’t agree to them.
The iPhone also prompts you to set up Apple Cash and Apple Pay at setup, which further means you have to agree to:
The Apple Cash agreement, which specifies that services are actually provided by Green Dot Bank and Apple Payments Inc. and further consists of the following agreements:
The Apple Cash terms and conditions
The electronic communications agreement
The Green Dot Bank privacy policy
Direct payments terms and conditions
Direct payments privacy notice
Apple Payments Inc. license
If you add a credit card to Apple Pay, you have to agree to:
The terms from your credit card provider, which do not have an option to be emailed
Final tally: two mandatory agreements, seven optional agreements for Apple Cash, and one optional agreement for Apple Pay.
Correction: The iPhone 14 Pro had a steel frame, not aluminum.The iPhone 17, not the Air, charges to 50% in 20 minutes.
